From NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT

By Paul Homewood

h/t Ian Magness

How much more pain are these idiots going to inflict?

Landlords will be blocked from letting properties unless they upgrade them to meet net zero energy efficiency targets within five years.

Ministers are poised to announce that landlords will have to spend thousands of pounds increasing the energy performance of their properties by 2028 – or face a fine of up to £30,000.

It is understood that the Government plans to force up to two million landlords to increase the Energy Performance Certificate rating of their properties to a minimum of a C standard to help reduce the nation’s carbon footprint.

It means buy-to-let investors could have to spend thousands of pounds installing insulation or eco-friendly devices such as heat pumps and solar panels to make their properties more energy efficient.

Currently, all privately rented homes in England and Wales need to meet a minimum energy performance of band E before they can be let.

Ministers had previously proposed a deadline of 2025 for newly-let rentals to achieve an energy performance rating of at least a C, and a deadline of 2028 for all other rented properties.

It comes after the Government was warned that the target was unachievable and risked driving landlords to sell up.

One industry source told The Telegraph that around 3,500 properties would need to be upgraded every day to meet the 2025 deadline, adding: “It’s a monumental challenge.”

There are fears that older properties will require much more investment to upgrade. The UK is home to one of Europe’s oldest housing stocks, with over half (52pc) of homes in England built before 1965.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/property/buy-to-let/landlords-get-five-years-hit-net-zero-targets/

Meanwhile:

The number of homes available to rent in the UK has fallen by a third over the past 18 months.

The sharp drop in the number of listings has helped drive up rents for new tenants by 11%.Lettings agencies typically have 10 rentals compared to over 16 before September 2021, figures shared with the BBC by property website Zoopla show.This has left people like Ruth searching for months without luck. “It seems completely hopeless”, she said.https://www.bbc.com/news/business-65090846.amp#:~:text=The%20number%20of%20homes%20available%20to%20rent%20in,with%20the%20BBC%20by%20property%20website%20Zoopla%20show.  It does not take a genius to work out that landlords are not going to fork out thousands on EPCs, and many will simply sell up instead.If the government wants the country to spend trillions on Net Zero, it should fund it itself and reduce other areas of public spending.